Conservation of MetalLast week I did some comparisons between a brand new Wicked Edge sharpened Shun and another Shun sharpened on a popular electric unit. Here is the thread: . At the same time, I did some tests cutting produce to see how the veggies would fare over a period of days when cut by differently sharpened knives. The methodology was simple: I took one fresh stalk of celery and cut it in two. I then cut each half into smaller pieces, one with the Wicked Edge sharpened knife and one with the electric sharpened knife respectively. I bagged each in Zip-Loc baggies and labelled them, then kept them in the refrigerator over the weekend. After 2.5 days, here is what they look like:
Large ImageAnyone care to hazard a guess as to which knife cut which piece of celery? It’s hard to see the difference with the small image, so here’s a link to the
I’ll check and photograph again tomorrow, but so far it looks to be fairly easy to demonstrate the extra shelf life possible when cutting with a super sharp knife. I got the idea from watching florists when cutting flower stems and how picky they are about having a very sharp knife.
Yes, this is absolutely great. Even though I realize we are knife nuts and that the average cook won’t see a bit of a difference :-).
For some reason I’m suddenly into high-end kitchen knives. If everything works out well, some well known sharpener will soon post a video here of him sharpening a really nice Japanese yanagiba on the WEPS…
We need a “what’s cooking” section here, too. Dunno how many cooks there are here, but I love the pictures of well cut roasts and other foods on another forum. But, even though this celery looks less mouth-watering, this picture says it all. Anyone into slicing sashimi?
I’ll weigh in on this, I’m a meat cutter and it’s well known that knife cuts vs saw cuts last longer (and obviously look better) and since I got the Wicked Edge there is a discernible difference in Not only the appearance (Which is beautiful) but probably another day in shelf life vs my hand sharpened knife using a 3 way stone, max 320 grit.
I found this rather incredible.
I didn’t get a chance to show them the produce results but they did really love the sharpener. With luck, they’ll be acquiring a bunch for their classrooms.
Now that I’m back in the office, I decided to look at the celery samples again. It’s been 9.5 days and here is how they look:
Any guesses as to which were cut with the knife sharpened on a popular electric sharpener? I knew I’d see a difference, but wow!
Eventually we’ll do a full white paper for restaurants showing how properly sharpened knives can improve their food costs and food prep labor costs. The electric sharpened knife has an edge similar to what they get back from knife swap programs and professional sharpening services.
[quote quote=“wickededge” post=7171]Now that I’m back in the office, I decided to look at the celery samples again. It’s been 9.5 days and here is how they look:
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Wow Clay, this is incredible! Much more so than the initial photographs. This should really convice cooks.
A white paper sounds like something to publish on this site. And even though I’m no marketing professional, this looks like extremely good marketing material for a much broader audience.
The results are so striking that they almost seem like they had to have been fudged, but no fudging was done; I simply pulled them out of the fridge and too the photos and since they came from the exact same stalk of celery, I don’t think there can be any worry of the initial samples being of varying quality.
Actually three of my local restaurants use a professional sharpening service and their knives are as sharp as a Wicked Edge knife. (Thats cause the are, By Me!) Now if only I could get enough business to quit my day job.
Awesome I should have put “professional” in quotes earlier. I was really referring to the run-of-the-mill guys that grind the knives to a jagged wreck, not a true professional like you. Those are rare in the restaurant world.
